La légitimité de l'État et du droit. Autour de Max Weber., Michel Coutu et Guy Rocher (dir), Saint-Nicolas, Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2005, 384 pages.

Bien que beaucoup d'ouvrages aient analysé les travaux de Weber, très peu se sont intéressés au concept de légitimité en soi, le considérant comme une notion univoque. Ce manque de réflexion sur le concept de légitimité constitue le point de départ de l'ouvrage La légitimité de l'État et du droit. Autour de Max Weber.

Villes, Régions et Universités : Recherches, Innovations et Territoires., Sous la direction de Hudon, Raymond et Jean-Pierre Augustin,, Les Presses de l'Université Laval, Québec, 2005, 385 p.

Ce livre est un compte rendu particulièrement fidèle des deuxièmes Rencontres Champlain-Montaigne entre la ville de Bordeaux en France et celle de Québec au Canada, qui se sont tenues en 2002. Ces rencontres se veulent un forum d'échanges portant sur les relations entre les universités et les partenaires socioéconomiques de leurs espaces régionaux respectifs. Elles ont été établies dans le contexte des relations bilatérales entre ces deux villes qui prévalent depuis leur jumelage en 1962. Depuis 2000, un protocole de coopération a été signé entre l'Université Laval, le Pôle universitaire de Bordeaux, la ville de Québec, la ville de Bordeaux, le Conseil régional de concertation et développement de la région de Québec et le Conseil régional d'Aquitaine. Les premières Rencontres Champlain-Montaigne se sont déroulées à Québec en 2001. Elles avaient déjà pour thème les villes, les régions et les universités et s'intéressaient tout particulièrement aux acteurs et à leurs pratiques. La seconde édition de ces rencontres les inscrit donc dans la durée et confirme l'intérêt pour le même sujet. Ces deuxièmes rencontres abordent toutefois la question du point de vue de la recherche, des innovations et de la dimension territoriale.

Norms of Liberty: A Perfectionist Basis for Non-Perfectionist Politics, Douglas B. Rasmussen and Douglas J. Den Uyl, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005, pp. xviii, 358.

As the sub-title here suggests, Rasmussen and Den Uyl seek to defend a liberalism that does not shy away from deep moral commitments. Instead they seek one with a “robust moral framework,” one that rejects “the claim that … liberalism is necessarily connected to moral minimalism or skepticism” (15). As they point out, this is not an especially new idea, and indeed much of their argument for a more philosophically invested liberalism is in general sympathy with the vision Mill articulated 150 years ago. (They happily go back even further, to Spinoza.)

A World beyond Politics? A Defense of the Nation-State, Pierre Manent, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006, pp. 216.

Pierre Manent begins his book with a quotation taken from Paul Claudel's Poetics, which poses the questions, “Where am I? What time is it?” and adds “these are the inexhaustible questions we ceaselessly ask the world” (1). In using the quotation, Manent sets the object of his book as an attempt to lay out the contemporary moment, to find our “bearings” as he states, in view of isolating the key elements that mark the internal and external developments of Western forms of representative democracy. Beyond drawing from the meaning taken from the quotation, one can only guess as to why Manent selected this particular passage to open his book. However, the choice is highly telling of the assessment that the book offers to its readers of the West's current political predicament.

Political Thought in Canada: An Intellectual History, Katherine Fierlbeck, Peterborough ON: Broadview Press, 2006, pp. 178.

Katherine Fierlbeck's project to provide “a brief exegesis of some of the more important political and philosophical debates in Canada's history” (6) is a difficult one, as she herself notes, because the criteria for determining which thinkers and ideas to include are contested. Fierlbeck selects a rich range of well known and under-theorized thinkers and, more importantly, she historicizes the links between political ideas and events so as to contextualize the development of political thought. Although she recognizes that there is no single school of Canadian thought, the unifying theme of the book is that of national identity.

Beyond Japan: The Dynamics of East Asian Regionalism, Peter J. Katzenstein and Takashi Shiraishi, eds., Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2006, 325 pp., viii pp.

This edited volume presents an interesting and comprehensive discussion of Japan's evolving relationship with the East Asian region. A central theme that runs throughout the book is that East Asia has moved beyond the influence of the single Japanese model toward a region that is being jointly driven by American, Japanese, Chinese and other national influences.

Immigration Phobia and the Security Dilemma: Russia, Europe, and the United States, Mikhail A. Alexseev, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. viii, 286.

As a political scientist, are you tiring of the rational choice approach? Is your research cramped by the requirements of political correctness? Are you fed up with the securitization of practically all forms of policy, including especially immigration? If so, then this is the book for you.

Challenging Liberalism, Feminism as Political Critique, Lisa H. Schwartzman, University Park PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006, pp. 210.

Lisa Schwartzman's Challenging Liberalism begins with the observation that equality, autonomy and individual rights are the foundation of many feminists' political demands. In this way liberalism has facilitated women's struggle for equality, from the acquisition of the suffrage to abortion rights. At the same time, however, liberal principles are also sometimes used in ways that are troubling to feminists. Freedom of expression, for example, can be understood to protect an individual's right to engage in racist hate speech or produce violent pornography. Schwartzman's goal is to examine why, from a feminist perspective, liberal concepts function in such a contradictory way and to offer a feminist reconsideration of liberalism. She contends that such a reformulation would not only be more consistent with liberalism itself, but also that it would be a more effective way for women, and perhaps all individuals whose political demands group them as a “class of persons,” to address their political demands. Schwartzman's work is engaging, and her discussion of other theorists who have addressed these questions is thoughtful and detailed. The strength of these chapters is such that one wishes she had more fully developed her conclusions.

Political Parties and Political Systems: The Concept of Linkage Revisited, Andrea Römmele, David M. Farrell, Piero Ignazi, eds., Westport CN: Praeger/Greenwood, 2005, pp. x, 181.

This is a book of nine short essays that develop and extend the ideas of linkage theory. The nature of the relationship between citizens and the state, through political parties and other organizations, has been a focus of study in a range of democratic regimes at least since de Tocqueville. Kay Lawson has dedicated a career to the study and classification of linkage relationships and to developing theories about how citizens and subjects are linked to the state. Lawson's best-known works included The Comparative Study of Political Parties (1976), Political Parties and Linkage: A Comparative Perspective (1980), When Parties Fail: Emerging Alternative Organizations (co-edited with Peter H. Merkl, 1988), and How Political Parties Work: Perspectives from Within (1994).. This volume does not claim to be a festschrift but it celebrates, applies and extends her work.

The Power of Greed: Collective Action in International Development, Michael Rosberg, Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2005, pp. 299.

This book has a title that promises interesting and provocative content. It is published by the press of one of Canada's major universities. It is written by a Canadian who, after graduating from a US university with a fine reputation in development studies, accumulated years of field experience with development projects in Colombia and Belize. It is sad, therefore, that this volume supports the adage against judging a book by its cover.

Imperialism and Internationalism in the Discipline of International Relations, David Long and Brian C. Schmidt, eds., SUNY series in Global Politics,; Albany NY; State University of New York Press, 2005, pp. x, 212.

Scholars from both sides of the Atlantic with similar academic interests have produced a trailblazing book on international relations (IR). Each author represented in this edited book voices his or her dissent to the standard interpretation that IR came about through the so-called realist-idealist debate in the interwar period. They aim to provide a revisionist account of the emergence of IR by challenging the foundational myth that the realist paradigm of the struggle for power among nations eclipsed the preceding idealists' benign vision of a peaceful world order. The writings of such luminaries as E.H. Carr and Hans Morgenthau helped to propagate and cement a rather inaccurate picture, derived from the Anglo-Saxon experience and applied to other parts of the world. The challenging revisionists doubt that the debate ever took place in the way conventional IR scholars suppose. They reckon that the corps of IR academicians, mostly liberal in their outlook, was too heterogeneous for any paradigm-shifting to be recognized at any point.

Histoire des relations internationales du Québec, Stéphane Paquin (dir.), 2006, Montréal : VLB Éditeur, 357 pages.

Les relations internationales désignent généralement les rapports entre pays indépendants sur la scène internationale. Or, Histoire des relations internationales du Québec illustre le fait que les relations internationales ne sont pas exclusivement du domaine fédéral. L'ouvrage admet d'emblée qu'elles sont aussi animées par des États provinciaux. Dans le cas présent, ce sont les relations internationales du Québec qui intéressent les 20 auteurs de ce collectif.

The “War on Terror” and the Framework of International Law, Helen Duffy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. li, 488.

The war on terror poses increasingly intractable challenges for the international legal order. Some commentators query whether the international reaction to 9/11 might have relaxed or transformed well-established legal principles, particularly in the fields of recourse to force and state responsibility. Other scholars opine that international law is adequately suited to address the relatively new and polymorphous threats of terrorism. Regardless of one's stance on the question, it is clear that the current war on terror has generated considerable academic writing, both inside and outside of law, and propelled various legal issues, such as the application of international human rights, international humanitarian law and international criminal law, to the forefront of scholarly inquiry.

Discourses of Denial: Mediations of Race, Gender, and Violence, Yasmin Jiwani, Vancouver: UBC Press, 2006, pp. viii, 255.

At first glance many political scientists may not see Discourse of Denial as an intervention that speaks to their discipline. After all, Jiwani's examination of racism, sexism and violence in Canada is explicitly directed to those who traverse multiple and interdisciplinary boundaries, racialized young women and immigrant women, front-line feminist anti-violence, anti-racist and anti-poverty activists, as well as policy makers. However, political scientists can gain much from this persuasively argued, methodologically diverse, innovative and well-researched book. Jiwani addresses how certain institutions—in particular, the dominant media—serve to “mediate” violence. Mediations involve discursive strategies that give recognition to certain expressions of violence and completely erase others, especially racism. Since political scientists frequently rely on the media in their research and teaching, and serve as media commentators as part of their community service, there is much here that is thought-provoking.

Empire and Imperialism: A Critical Reading of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Atilio A. Boron, London: Zed Books, 2005, pp. 141.

Michael Walzer, reflecting in a 2002 Dissent article (vol. 49, Spring) upon the compelling issues in world politics, asked “Can there be a decent Left?” After reading Atilio A. Boron's impassioned and derisive critique of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's Empire (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), one wonders whether today there can be an empirically sophisticated, coherent Left. (Negri, by the way, spent seventeen years in Italian prisons for his involvement with the Red Brigade and the murder of Italian politician Aldo Moro.) Boron, a professor of political theory at the University of Buenos Aires claims, no doubt rightly, that the last three decades, embracing the end of the Cold War, the impact of neo-liberal policies on the “periphery” and sweeping technological changes, have necessitated a reformulation of leftist thinking. The influential Empire, which advances a root-and-branch restructuring of socialist thought, though hugely popular among anti-globalization groups and already translated into over a dozen languages, is to Boron emphatically not it. While paying obeisance to Hardt and Negri's “noble intentions and intellectual and political honesty” (4–5), the author proceeds to shred virtually all their main contentions.

Policy Horizons and Parliamentary Government, Paul V. Warwick, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, pp. x, 256.

In Autumn 1978, the governing Swedish Centre Party came into conflict with its two coalition partners over the use of nuclear reactors for electric power and ultimately instigated the fall of the coalition government by proposing a referendum on the issue. The party's behaviour in this episode makes little sense when viewed from a policy-seeking or office-seeking perspective. By leaving the governing coalition, the party lost influence over government policy, lost office benefits and even lost votes in ensuing elections. We are consequently left to wonder what motivated the party leadership to embark on a seemingly self-destructive course of action.

La comparaison dans les sciences sociales : pratiques et méthodes, Vigour, Cécile, Paris, La découverte, 2005, 335 pages.

Cet ouvrage, rédigé par une sociologue française rattachée à l'Institut des sciences sociales du politique (une unité du CNRS), se présente comme un “ guide repère ” sur la comparaison en sciences sociales.

Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence, Jeremy M. Weinstein, Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 429.

Inside Rebellion combines clear and sharp theoretical insights with multiple and well-designed methods to address an important issue and moves the debate substantially forward. How can we explain variations in violence in civil wars, particularly the targeting of civilians? Weinstein argues that the structure of opportunities at the outset of rebel mobilization dominate the movement's destiny.

Party Movements in the United States and Canada: Strategies of Persistence, Mildred A. Schwartz, Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006, pp. xi, 229.

This is an unusual book. Its subject is neither parties nor social movements, but party movements—organizations which combine the moral indignation of social movements with parties' goals of influencing elections. Students of American and Canadian parties know them as third or minor parties, given short shrift in the American literature and greater attention in Canada. Schwartz argues that party movements are underestimated. Successful or not, most persist, if not in the same organizational form, then through symbols or ideas they have generated, or in successor organizations

La politique étrangère de la Croatie, de son indépendance à nos jours, 1991–2006, Renéo Lukic (dir.), 2006, Sainte-Foy : Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 316 pages.

Dans le contexte troublé de l'éclatement de l'ex-Yougoslavie, la Croatie a déclaré son indépendance en juin 1991. En décembre, l'Allemagne est la première à reconnaître ce nouvel État de l'Europe du Sud. La France et la Communauté économique européenne (CEE) lui emboîtent le pas quelques semaines plus tard; les États-Unis font de même en avril 1992. Malgré la reconnaissance diplomatique de son indépendance, la guerre avec la République fédérale de Yougoslavie, l'implication de la Croatie dans le conflit en Bosnie-Herzégovine ainsi que la dérive autoritaire du président nationaliste Franjo Tuđman conduisent à un isolement relatif de la Croatie sur la scène internationale. L'élection en février 2000 de Stjepan Mesić, un opposant à Tuđman, représente un tournant aussi bien en politique intérieure qu'en politique étrangère. L'ouvrage collectif La politique étrangère de la Croatie, publié sous la direction de Renéo Lukic, professeur au département d'histoire de l'Université Laval, retrace l'histoire des relations internationales de cet État entre 1991 et 2006. Il offre un panorama détaillé des relations que le nouvel État a développées avec l'Allemagne, la France, les États-Unis, la CEE, puis l'Union Européenne (UE) et les États successeurs de la Yougoslavie. L'ouvrage se présente sous la forme de chapitres, que nous rassemblons en deux parties par égard à la concision.